Zero Waste Brussels’ inaugural campaign came to an end this weekend in a whirlwind of stickers, tutus and silly poses. Designed to coincide with the European Week of Waste Reduction 2013, our aim was to get the message across to shoppers at Brussels’ many markets that reusing plastic containers is one way to save thousands of kilos of plastic trash from the white bag.

During the week we visited six markets – St Gilles, Châtelain, Boondael, Chasseurs Ardennais, Flagey and Jourdan, talking to stallholders and customers and stickering over 500 lids of (non-recyclable) plastic tubs with the message ‘Je La Ramène!’. The stickers were to let customers know that they could wash the tubs, bring them back to the market stall and reuse them the following week to shop for olives, feta, lasagne or any other delicacies usually sold in plastic pots.

The Saturday morning market in Place Flagey saw us and volunteers unleash our plastic bag tutus on the world and pose ‘Je La Ramène’ style with shoppers and market stallholders. Let’s just say we turned a few heads. A representative of Bruxelles Environnement, who coordinated all EWWR actions in Brussels, turned up to take photos and find out more.

Everyone we spoke to agreed that plastic pollution is a real problem, especially as many forms of plastic can’t be recycled in Brussels. Reuse is a great solution – easy for shoppers and economical for vendors. Next time you go to a market, take a plastic pot or tupperware in your canvas tote, the stallholders are happy to fill it up for you. And you can show off that you saved valuable resources from being incinerated!